Dhaka, Jul 29 (EFE).- Tension gripped Bangladesh again as students vowed to return to the streets on Monday, in protest of the killings, arrests, and intimidation of student leaders following a deadly protest in the past week that killed nearly 200 people.
The new protest was declared a day after six key leaders of the Students Movement Against Discrimination, a platform for protesting students, announced the withdrawal of their protests through a statement issued while in custody of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch.
The police took the six leaders into custody, some from hospitals, in the past few days, saying that they needed to be given protection.
Student leader Abdul Kader said in a video message that the government showed a lot of “audacity” by holding their coordinators in custody and forcing them to issue a “scripted statement at gunpoint.”
“In the past few days after mass killings and mass arrests, the government has now created a new drama,” Kader said in the video message from an undisclosed location.
He announced a nationwide demonstration on Monday to press home their nine-point list of demands, which includes an unconditional apology from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by taking responsibility for the killing of students, the removal of certain ministers, and vice chancellors at some top universities, and the and the trial of police officers responsible for killing students.
Hospital, police, fire service, and family sources confirmed to EFE that at least 194 people died during the clashes between July 16 and July 21 and their aftermath.
The Bangladesh government issued its first official death toll on Sunday, saying that 147 people were killed in the clashes.
The Student Movement Against Discrimination has said that 266 people were killed during the protests.
The protests began in early July after the High Court ordered the government to restore the 30 percent employment quota reserved for the descendants of freedom fighters from Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war.
Protesters argued that the quota system was discriminatory and benefits ers of the ruling Awami League, while the government defended it as a way to honor veterans of Bangladesh’s war of independence.
The protests escalated on July 15, with the first deaths reported the following day.
A curfew at midnight was imposed on July 19, with the army being called in to control the situation.
In an apparent bid to calm the escalating street violence, on July 21 the Supreme Court watered down the quota system, allowing 93 percent of jobs to be allocated on a merit-based system, with only 5 percent reserved for relatives of freedom fighters. EFE
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